Designing Tomorrow: Strategic Design to Change Your Practice, Org & Impact

Now this is a HUGE event focused on the Service Design and HCD folks out there and what an event it is!

We’ve got 2 amazing speakers flying up from Sydney for this event and Reuben and Rob are so excited to hear from Martin and Steve in collaboration of their book – Designing Tomorrow!

The past decades have seen the rise and adoption of human-centred design across sectors. Centering decisions on users and customers and their needs has led to better experiences, products, and services for people. But focusing too narrowly on the individual, risks overlooking those at the margins—and the broader systems that sustain us all. In particular, unintended consequences, uncosted externalities, and negatively reinforcing feedback loops are more likely to occur when we fail to understand our context beyond the direct needs of people.

This talk explores a new approach – life-centred design – that encourages a balanced consideration of human, environmental, and ethical perspectives. It dives into the role of systems thinking and tools and strategies for uncovering unintended consequences and envisioning futures. Come and join us for an opportunity to practice systems mapping and an engaging conversation about designing a better tomorrow.

Speakers -

Martin Tomitsch is a Professor and Head of the Transdisciplinary School at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), home to the award-winning Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation. As a design academic and educator, Martin advocates for the transformative power of design to envision speculative futures and drive positive change. He has published over 150 academic articles and seven books, including Making Cities Smarter, Design Think Make Break Repeat, and Designing Tomorrow. Martin is a founding member of the Urban Interfaces group at the University of Sydney, the global Media Architecture Institute, the Austrian Network for Information and Communication Technologies for Development, and the Life-centered Design Collective.

Steve Baty is recognised as one of the global leaders in the use of design approaches to the integration of customer-centredness and systems design with architectural and engineering practice.
Steve has spent the past decade driving forward the customer experience of Sydney’s new Metro rail service, conducting ethnographic and evaluative research activities over hundreds of hours. His work has informed the design of four Sydney Metro services, and helped to shape the way Sydney Metro stations and precincts are designed to ensure that the customer experience is paramount.
In addition to his current role at Meld Collective Steve has held numerous roles including:
Co-founder - Meld Studios
CEO - Australian Design Council
A published co-author - Designing Tomorrow (2023)

Huge thanks –

The Precinct – Thanks for allowing us the space to run this event
Folk – For committing to the community and supporting the Designers Meetup and playing their part to support the local design community and be able to put these amazing events on
JDP – They practice what they preach and bring the community to the forefront! People first!
Brisbane Design Group Organisers – Thanks for the continued work to build these amazing events

And lastly to the COMMUNITY as without you, they wouldn’t be the events they are! Make sure to sign up ASAP, this will SELL OUT!!